Cinco de Mayo: Fiesta!

I’ve never actually celebrated Cinco de Mayo before, but since we’re getting through this cookbook now’s as good a time as any to start!

I’m not able to make the entire Cinco de Mayo spread from this book, so I decided to just make the following today:

Blackberry Margaritas

Straight-Up Pico de Gallo

Mango Pico de Gallo

Watermelon Pico de Gallo

Glorious Guacamole

Chipotle Salsa

You can find the Blackberry Margaritas recipe on the Pioneer Woman website here and the Watermelon Pico de Gallo recipe here!

I started some of the preparations yesterday for the Margaritas and Pico de Gallos, and I was actually able to make the Salsa completely a day ahead of time.

The salsa was really easy. All of the ingredients were thrown into a blender and mixed until thoroughly combined.

For the pico de gallo varieties, I pre-chopped the onions and jalapeños.

And for the margaritas, I pre-made the blackberry puree. The blackberry puree involved combining blackberries, sugar, and lime juice in a pot over the stove and cooking until thick. Then the berries were strained into a bowl, and the bowl was refrigerated overnight.

This morning I started with the pico de gallo varieties. Everything was chopped (tomatoes, mangoes, watermelon, cilantro, bell peppers) and the limes were squeezed. After that, the ingredients for each variety were just combined and placed in separate bowls.

Then I moved onto the guacamole. Once the avocados were scooped out and mashed, I added in lime juice and a little bit of each pico de gallo variety.

Finally, the best part: margaritas! First I rimmed the glasses with lime sugar (a combination of lime zest and sugar). Unfortunately I don’t have fancy margarita glasses, so we just used my regular drinking glasses.

Then I filled my blender up with ice, added in the ingredients (tequila, triple sec, lime juice, sugar, and blackberry puree), and blended until combined.

I also put out tortilla chips for all of the pico de gallo varieties, salsa, and guacamole, and two of my girlfriends came over to help me try it all!’

Most of the recipes were REALLY good!!! We all found the guacamole to be a bit bland, but the salsa and margaritas were AMAZING!